The close of another year signifies a period of reflection. It’s an opportunity to take stock of our fortunes and be grateful for what we have and who we are.

Teaching children to count their blessings and having them reach out in your community will help children learn the importance of giving rather than receiving.

To bring on the holiday spirit start a new family tradition by making a Blessing Jar. A Blessing Jar is a great reminder of times of joy and difficulty throughout the year.

Whenever you recognize a “blessing” in your life throughout the year, just write it on a piece of paper, fold it up, and stick it in the Blessing Jar. On New Year’s Eve, dump out all the blessings from the entire year and go through it together as a family. It will be a great reminder of times of joy AND in times of difficulty!

Simply grab a Mason jar with a lid or any glass jar and decorate with tissue paper pre-cut into squares. Use a mixture of glue and water for the paste. Start counting your blessings!

Feel good this season by collaborating with your kids to help those in need. Contact a soup kitchen to see if they offer any family-friendly volunteer opportunities. Most sites like these are best for kids ages 12 and up, but some welcome younger children who want to set or decorate tables. Or you could sign up to deliver food from Meals on Wheels and take kids of any age along. If you can’t find an organization near you that allows children to do hands-on helping, consider baking treats and bringing them to your local heroes who work the night shift at the fire station, police station, or hospital.

As for us here at MyEduCrate, we would like to give thanks to all those who support our mission, our loyal customers and friends.

As we continue our venture into this summer season, it’s time to tackle the issue of the added stress it can have for families. With these three *Summer Survival* tips we hope to make the remainder of your summer more of a dream than a struggle.

1. Summer is the perfect time to encourage Self-Directed Learning.

*Create a learning space that encourages independence. If you want your children to be independent then you need to make sure your home is set up so they are able to be. Are their belongings kept where they can access them without your help? Do they have free access to learning materials and art supplies so they can utilize them whenever inspiration strikes?

*Let them answer their own questions. When a new interest arises and there are questions upon questions, instead of just giving them the answers, try to encourage them to research themselves. You might ask:

‘What do you think?’
‘How do you think we could find out?’
‘Where could we look for the answer?’
‘Who could we ask about this?’
‘Where could we go to see this in real life?
Set out materials with a resource on their current interest to encourage them to explore that interest further.

*Have your child learn to play a musical instrument. Studies show that learning to play a new instrument is complex and over a long period of time it is ideal for strengthening the mind.

*Get Moving. You can do simple exercises with your child like sitting and touching your right elbow to your left knee. Do this five times and then do left elbow to right knee. Repeat several times. Go old school and have the kids play outside. Send them out with minimal toys and see what they come up with. Kids of all ages like bubbles, running through sprinklers and body paints. Have an old-fashioned water balloon fight or watermelon eating contest.

3. Limit Technology

*One of the quickest ways to watch the summer slip through your fingers and spend your days with combative and grouchy kids, is to let technology take over. Technology is a part of life and there are so many benefits to its usage, but too much will hurt us. Make it clear how much technology is allowed each day so that things don’t get out of control. Some families like to allow their kids to earn their technology by doing extra work around the house and yard. Or by doing extra things to serve and help others. However you decide to monitor your technology, be mindful of the time your kids are spending in front of it.
Happy Summer!

Summer is a great time to relax and not worry about the pressures of school but you also don’t want your children to lose ground on what they have learned throughout the school year. To preserve learning outcomes and prevent the ‘summer slide’ there are many ways to keep things playful and stress-free while traveling on the road with your children or while staying at home. Below are perfect opportunities for bonding with your child and to casually squeeze in summer learning.

Start a family book club. Reading is one of the most important skills to maintain and develop. Family member’s take turns reading the same book and then meeting to discuss what they liked and did not like. This is a great way to create family bonding time and enhance your child’s critical thinking skills. Be sure to stay up to date with the activities at your local library, which provides fun and sociable learning opportunities.

Let them be your travel agents. Are you going away this summer? If so, put your children in charge of planning at least one aspect of the trip. Give them maps, brochures and guides, and see how they use their skills to figure out a plan. Let them help you search for lodging within your budget and in the area you want to stay. Together, you can learn about nearby attractions and plan your visit accordingly. The entire process not only builds confidence, but serves as a finance, geography, history and social studies lesson all wrapped in one.

Make the most out of ‘carschooling.’ I remember traveling with cookie sheets and a plastic tote filled with goodies for my children. Easily held on a lap, a cookie sheet can be used as a surface for playing magnetic games like tic tac toe, playing word games like Mad Libs, and glow-in-the-dark toys (when traveling at night). It’s an inexpensive alternative to a car-seat lap desk, and when it’s not in use, it fits in the back pocket of the seat. Give each child their own notebook and a few pages of stickers and let them make their own creations.

Have a scavenger hunt at the museum. One way to turn a visit to the museum into a fun and educational experience is to make it a scavenger hunt. If you’re going to an art museum, your list can include things you might see in paintings or sculptures from a certain country. If it’s a natural history museum, you can include fossils and animals on your list.

Make something. While there are plenty of kits out there to promote STEM learning skills, you can encourage your children to use their creativity and knowledge to build projects from common household materials. Some classic examples of this would be making a raft out of empty milk cartons or plastic bottles, a homemade volcano using vinegar and baking soda or a homemade electromagnet.

Become a collector. A great way for children to get hands-on knowledge of the natural world is for them to build a collection while discovering the outdoors. Rocks, plants, bugs – these are the things that excite a young mind. Search for different kinds of leaves to press at home, then work with your children to identify their types.

Put simply, kids need to keep their wheels turning. Without ongoing opportunities to learn and practice essential skills, kids fall behind on measures of academic achievement over the summer months.

Summer presents an untapped opportunity – a time of year when youth and families seek enriching summertime experiences and these opportunities help ensure summer learning gain rather than loss.

Children learn best through their everyday experiences with the people they love and trust, and when the learning is fun. As a public school teacher, I know that raising children who love to learn doesn’t happen by accident. Many families do all that we can to foster and nurture learning in the earliest years of a child’s life, as well we should. But when our children begin spending their days in the classroom, we aren’t off the hook! Continuing to build a home where learning is nurtured and valued is one of the best ways we can equip our children for life after graduation.

Here are some practical ways to support learning at home:

READ, READ, READ- Study after study confirms that homes that create a culture devoted to literacy are the homes from which the most academically successful students come forth. Look for books that might excite your child to want to learn more. Reading a book is the springboard for all kinds of enrichment possibilities: math, science, social studies, art.

EXPLORE EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES-If you’ve never done so before, take some time to explore different approaches to education. Children learn in a variety of ways –There are three main cognitive learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. The beauty of a learning-rich home is that parents can supplement their child’s learning in a way that meets their specific educational needs!

PROVIDE BALANCE TO AND SUPPLEMENT FOR CLASSROOM CURRICULUM-Ask your child what he would have like to know more about and explore those topics together! A trip to a natural science museum. A particularly fascinating work of literature might encourage a little digging to discover what popular culture was like at the time that piece was written. A unit on the color red could initiate a neighborhood scavenger hunt for all things red. Listening and responding to a child’s interests helps further instill the idea that learning is fun and is never, ever limited to a classroom.

COLLECT HOME LEARNING MATERIALS-Homes where learning is emphasized contain tools that encourage education. Build a home library. Invest in a diverse music collection. Display prints of famous artworks next to framed pieces of your child’s own art. Play board games that encourage critical thinking. Fill blank spaces with good words and clever thoughts signs that make everyone in the family stop and think. The number of ways to fill your home with the stuff of learning is limited only by your imagination, and you will never be disappointed by the returns on these investments!

Truly, the best way we can instill in our children the importance of learning for the sake of learning is to be life-long learners ourselves. As you go about your days spent with children at home, model for them the joy and fulfillment that comes from learning new things all the time.

I know first-hand the temptation in thinking that school is where my children learn and home is where we play. The truth is, a playful approach to learning all the time is one of the very best ways we can equip our children for lifelong success.

What schooling choices have you made for your children, and how do you create an environment for learning at home?

Do you feel like you are always rushing? Is there a lot of yelling going on at your house? Take the opportunity of a new year to rethink your family’s activities and make some a resolutions for starting start the school year off on a positive note.

Listen without fixing.

During the new year, resolve to listen to your child’s story about something that happened in school without immediately “fixing” the problem, interrupting or teaching a constructive lesson. Concentrate on listening first and then later on, when you and your child are both calmer, give advice or guidance and keep it short, very short!

Make a habit of finding time to talk and listen.

Pay attention to the times of day your child is most naturally open, whether it be during after-school snack, while watching TV, at bath or bed time, and protect those times as very special. In the new year, get in the habit of talking and listening for just a few minutes a day.

Try not to overextend.

Make an effort to limit activities for your kids, especially younger kids – one or two activities are enough, especially for parents with more than one child. Otherwise, it causes stress all around.

Use driving time to play some educational games.

Whether driving to school, an after-school activity or to a friend’s house, you can make the ride fun by playing some games and exercising their brains. Try “I Spy,” a game that is great for developing descriptive vocabulary, particularly for young children. You play by describing an object that you see out of the window and ask your child to “spy” or spot it.
Another game to try is Geography, where you say a state, country or city. Your child then has to figure out the last letter of the word and say a new location using that last letter. For example: You say Florida and now it is his turn and he has to say a new location that begins with “a” like Alaska.

Schedule time to relax.

Too many things on your family “to do” list? Consider adding one more to your list this year: relaxation! Schedule a family Saturday night at the movies at home. Consider renting a classic family movie such as “Wizard of Oz,” “National Velvet” or films of more recent vintage such as “E.T.” or “Shrek.” Make popcorn, curl up on the couch and turn off the computer, cell phone and video games.

Monday is approaching and your child will be coming home with HOMEWORK:

1. Know the teachers — and what they’re looking for in regards to homework. Ask about their homework policies and how you should be involved. Every teacher is different.

2. Set up a homework-friendly area.
Have a snack handy, supplies, and drink. No excuses to get up and get distracted from getting it done. We know those kids. I have them too.

3. Make sure kids do their own work. They won’t learn if they don’t think for themselves and make their own mistakes. Parents you can make suggestions and help with directions. But it’s a kid’s job to do the learning and do the work. Nothing makes a teacher laugh more than having the spelling sentences returned for the week in moms handwriting. It’s not about perfection it’s practice.

4. Give encouragement. They worked all day at school. Praise their work and efforts and they will work harder.

5. Breathe – It’s just homework. If you have to walk away and come back later or another day remind yourself that it is okay.